SIMs Teacher App Deployment Woes

[Killer_Bot]

So we've recently been subscribed to SIMs Teacher App. Had a pain figuring out deployment and it's still less than ideal and I'm wondering how others have gone about it.

 

The install was only finished today and I've been doing some testing and am encountering an issue that I’m hoping isn’t as designed. Basically our staff move around a LOT. We have had a teacher sign into a machine, download the app, authorise the device and sign in fine. Great. Now I log off that and log on as the next teacher. I have to go through the WHOLE process again including ‘authorising’ the device with a NEW code!

 

As Staff are likely to use several machines a day that is really not something we can expect them to do especially when you consider there are close to 80 teacher desktops on site.

 

Can anyone confirm if this is how it’s designed and that the store app has to be downloaded and SIMS teacher authorised per user, per machine. E.g. if 7 users use one machine we would need 7 lots of authorisation codes per machine?

 

I appreciate we won't have this issue when they use home devices but SLT would like Staff to have access to the Teacher App on their classroom PCs as well as the usual SIMs client.

 

On a completely different note; the management console is missing so many key features. No way to download all authorisation codes for devices other than copy and paste, no way to import all devices on mass, etc. As I mentioned we have about 80 Teacher PCs (and a good amount of Office PCs) so if we ended up having to use multiple authorisation codes per device we could end up with someone having to click 'add' almost one thousand times! Am I missing something here?

[Jamman960]

I've never used the windows version of the app but had similar nightmares with iPads

 

bit late now but I'd recommend ditching the Sims Teacher App and instead get Edulink - its so much better and is entirely web based(apps are availible for mobile devices), it costs less than Sims' app.

[Killer_Bot]

Yeah, I hadn't had any involvment in that process as been caught up with Covid prep so the first I heard of it was after the decision was made to purchase. I honestly don't understand a lot of the decisions that seem to have gone into Teacher App particularly with the management and deployment sides. Just seems like an incomplete piece of software.

 

Hopefully someone on here has deployed the client to Teacher machines successfully in the same kind of setting but I shan't hold my breath.

[DODICT]

I've never used the windows version of the app but had similar nightmares with iPads

 

bit late now but I'd recommend ditching the Sims Teacher App and instead get Edulink - its so much better and is entirely web based(apps are availible for mobile devices), it costs less than Sims' app.

 

or review your MIS altogether and get a fit for purpose MIS that is cloud by design not just a frilly front end - with a built in app that isnt a pain to deploy. How many symptoms do you want to treat before you tackle the route cause ?

[Killer_Bot]

Whilst I agree with your sentiment (and indeed voiced the same thing to members of SLT here) that doesn't really help in the here and now. Long term it's definitely worth looking at though I agree.

[DODICT]

yes but at what point do you say enough ? lots of schools have even migrated MIS during lockdown - this myth an MIS change is a 10 year project that will grind your school to a halt doesn't really cut it.

 

So yeah doesnt solve your immediate problem but where people are recommending a cloud front end to augment a flawed legacy product I think its useful to mention change isnt as hard as you think and you'll realise the benefits in weeks not years. How long do you want to suffer for - or put it another way how long do you want be negatively impacting the operations of your organisation ?

[Killer_Bot]

Yeah you're preaching to the choir here. I'd love to move onto something more modern, but I'm afraid that's a project for another day especially in light of the current situation. I would LOVE to have the time free to do a migration but as it is I lack the manpower and time to do what needs to be done already. If I could just get a solution to this for now that takes that off my back atleast but, from everything I'm seeing online, I'm not going to. Got tickets in with Capita too but from my experience with them I'm also less than optimistic.